He had a brown Rolls-Royce and [race] horses., Bob Saccenti He used to say youre never gonna make a lot of money building boats you make a living doing that. He admired Aronow and acquired a corner of the Row, obtaining an interest in Apache, which in turn supplied the vessels he raced offshore (his fabled Warpath, based on a deep V Cigarette mould, won him a world championship). Michael Peters concludes, If you want to find anything comparable today, you need to look elsewhere, maybe to the final frontier Blue Origin, SpaceX, Bezos and Musk. He pauses. Aronow doesn't care if all these retired furniture makers and machine tool executives are little more than middle-aged adolescents flaunting their masculinity on a Sunday afternoon -- tooling around the docks of some Intracoastal bar like Shooters, feeling terribly macho-nautical doing 30 knots in a $125,000 Cigarette Aronow built to run all day at 60 knots in hull- hammering six foot seas. That was just his personality. [1], After school, he worked as a physical education teacher for a time until he accepted a job at his father-in-law's southern New Jersey construction business which was booming thanks to demand from returning World War II veterans. Retired President Lyndon B. Johnson owned several 16ft. Donzi speedboats on his Texas ranch with which he would race his Secret Service agents. The contessa suddenly mashed her brakes and brought the car to a halt at the side of the road, its tires only inches away from a sheer drop into a dark valley. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue. We could see all the gunshots. After purchasing Aronows USA Racing Team, Kramer and the latter got into a business dispute, but after the Customs Service refused to do business with him, Kramer was obliged to give it back to Aronow. Despite having a complex plot, Speed Kills from 2018 failed to win over both reviewers and viewers. People said whatever Don touched turned to gold. Brown: He was also the best boat salesman in the history of the world. Peters: The upstairs apartment above his office was kind of famous. I was a little hesitant to move to Miami because my view of it was straight out of [1980s TV series] Miami Vice. Magnum Marine was responsible for Donalds first World Championship victory in 1927. The 2018 criminal drama film Speed Kills served as a vehicle for Dons epicness. The result was the 8.5-metre 007, named after the gathering cinematic phenomenon. That was the cast of characters he was involved with. The boat coasted in fourth. Saccenti: [Kramer and Aronow] were both wealthy, and if it was over money, thats a shame. Even though he was caught having affairs outside of his marriage, his son said he was a great dad and a great husband., He went on to say, My dad ended more marriages than anyone else. Like most, it's a tale of conquest; Aronow versus the odds: It was back in 1967. Allan Brown Shirley was his first wife. They could not countenance procuring drug interdiction boats from a firm owned by a convicted smuggler and predictably moved to cancel the procurement contract. Barely had he begun to win before he sold Formula to Thunderbird Boats. Some people badmouth him, He did this, he robbed that. Well, thats shame on you. Made quite a lot of money on it in spring of 1964. WebProfile of Don Aronow murder on TV show Expose hosted by Tom Brokaw "And all of a sudden I was in the powerboat business.". (Captains note: we think he means money.) "I got bored with it," he explains. [A tough, athletic, Jewish kid from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, by age 21 Aronow found himself married and about to start a career in his father-in-laws New Jersey construction company.]. The weather was cold and he was getting ulcers and he said, I cant do this anymore. Saccenti: He used to say youre never gonna make a lot of money building boats. And every new [Cigarette] that I do, I drive right by his house with it, just so he can see. From one of Italy';s best families.". He owns a horse farm in Ocala, a home in Miami Beach and a new Long Island estate that just made Toen and Country. Dons origin story moves around according to whos telling it. "I don't now why nobody was killed. He was inquiring about a 60ft boat and alluding to a mysterious man he worked for and who he would kill for, if need be. ", "Kramer's Conviction Upheld in Aronow Murder", "Helicopter Crash Foils Drug Smuggler's Prison Escape", "1986-1990 APBA Hall of Champions Inductees", "Master Of Those Mad Racers - Don Aronow hurts a little, but as the world's top ocean powerboat driver and builder he is never bored", "DONALD ARONOW, BOAT DESIGNER AND CHAMPION RACER, SHOT TO DEATH", New York Times, Men's Fashion, Travel: "For The Moment | Show Time for Adam Kimmel", "Interfaith Celebrities: Coming of Age Again, the Girls of NYC and a Couple of Rookies", Historic Offshore Race Boat Association - Donald Aronow, "The Murder of Speedboat Builder Don Aronow", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_Aronow&oldid=1099454315, American people of Russian-Jewish descent, James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni, Articles needing additional references from January 2014, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 July 2022, at 21:33. Even local residents the Bee Gees were not immune. [1][2] In 1959, at age of 32, the now-millionaire Aronow moved to Miami with his family, where he began racing boats as a hobby.[2]. "These guys earned their money," Aronow says. On February 3, 1987, Aronow was murdered in his car at the end of 188th Street in North Miami Beach where his boat companies operated. Back in 1981, Time quoted a legal researcher living in Miami as saying: I see people walking down the streets openly carrying guns, some in their hands, others in their holsters. Our Privacy Policy Creator includes several compliance verification tools to help you effectively protect your customers privacy. Don would compete with people his size, said Michael Peters. Don Aronow: The King of Thunderboat Row, 1994, by Michael Aronow Those two managed to make you feel like you were the centre of their world. They were fast (more than 112km/h), good for interdiction activities (stable when boarding intercepted boats) and comparatively easy to drive. The boats tend to be smaller, more sedate, more family-oriented. [2] David [7] Everyone who knew him has a story to tell. We considered Formula to be a utility boat. It was testimony to the Theodolis diplomatic instincts that this would not become their fate. He had a brown Rolls Royce and [raced] horses and stuff. Witnesses said a powder blue Lincoln pulled up next to Aronow's car from the opposite direction, and when Aronow rolled down its window the driver opened fire. He was the type of guy that if he liked you, he loved you. Their son is menswear designer Adam Kimmel; His second wife was former Wilhelmina model, Lillian Crawford, 24 years his junior. Aronow: My father broke up more marriages than anybody. Innovations such as fibreglass construction techniques and the drag-reducing deep V hull were taking chunks from the record times, and also from crews in rough seas. Lipschutz: [Aronow] lived right on the water on Biscayne Bay. During our conversation she revealed that she was a bit hesitant about being interviewed since she is not someone who is comfortable in the public eye but in the end we chatted about everything from her art, her stint in the antiques business to her childhood in Florida with her father, Don Aronow the boat racer and builder of the renowned Gavin and Wylie are their two sons. Shortly after the visit, Aronow left his office and drove down the street to Apache Performance Boats to visit with his former protg, Bob Saccenti. You gotta do your homework. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. Radios blared out the hits of the day. Having sold Cigarette for the last time in 1982 (after having sold it and purchasing it back in the late 1970s while merging it with his own Squadron Marine), he formed USA Racing Team and built the Blue Thunders, 39-foot catamarans used by the United States Customs Service to patrol U.S. waters and run down illegal offshore activities, especially drug smuggling. Phil Lipschutz I never had any inkling that Don was involved in something illegal. Guys wanted to be him. After campaigning his boat "The Cigarette" around the world with mechanic Norris "Knocky" House as his cockpit companion, he won his second World Championship in three years, and third consecutive United States Championship while becoming only the 2nd American in history to win the UIM Gold Medal of Honor (Gar Wood was America's first UIM champion). Read more:David A. Arnold: Death And Obituary How Did Famous Comedian, Actor-Writer &Producer Die? Bush back-pedalled out of there as fast as he could. Brown: He was murdered right out in front of my office halfway between Saccentis building and my building. But in the end the investigation led to a hired gun. Ive met some extremely charismatic men, including Sean Connery and Roger Moore, she said. Mega-priced and obscenely over-powered, Aronow's sleek craft have set 25 world speed records, won more than 300 major races and earned a dozen world ocean racing champions. They had two sons, Gavin and Wylie. The drug money was corrupting banking, real estate and law enforcement. The best I ever saw. Peters: I had gone through a divorce and it was terrible times. On Tuesday, Smith, the retired detective, called Aronows widow, Lillian, to break the news. Having made a fortune in the construction business in New Jersey, building homes and shopping centres, Aronow hastily relocated to Florida in 1961. (Ironically, in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Saccentis life was saved by his race partner, none other than Ben Kramer.) WebIn 1964, Brownie worked for Don Aronow at Donzi Marine, the first real sport boat builder. At the time, Saccenti was recovering from a horrific crash on Lake Erie. He did that a few times. It was a big building and obscured the Donzi plant you couldnt see [Donzi] from Highway 1 anymore! In 1948, he married Shirley Goldin, [1] [6] whom he had met while working as a lifeguard on Coney Island. The Shah of Iran, George Bush Sr., and Lyndon Johnson all had speedboats that he made for them. A violent criminal named Bobby Young was fingered as the hitman, and his employeraccording to the courtswas Ben Kramer. Katheryn Winnick and John Travolta in Speed Kills ( Source : imdb ) Ben and his wife Emily also had a son named Andrew. The murder may forever remain a mystery. Don Aronow with his wife Lillian and son Gavin. You can talk to anyone, but every night he was at home.. "I got into ocean powerboat racing after I retired to Florida," he says. The great speed of Cigarette boats also made them a popular choice among cocaine smugglers. Cigarette, Donzi and other Aronow-conceived brands live on, as do the Miami to Key West race and offshore poker runs. He ran a successful business making speedboats. [2] Check Out Christopher Brineys Unseen Summer I Turned Pretty PhotosYoull Be Surprised! It did not take the US Customs Service long to learn of this. The twos happy marriage disintegrates due to Bens demanding schedules and their son Andrews car accident, which left his legs permanently disfigured. My Legacy: Inside Codecasa's 56m superyacht that champions traditionalism, Mimi La Sardine: The 33.5m explorer designed with a little help from Pinterest, My Song: Sailing in symphony on board the first ClubSwan 80, Interior designer Katharine Pooley turns her hand to boats, 130+ superyachts flock to St Barths for New Year's celebrations, Celebrities spotted on superyachts during the holidays. Half out of his car, Aronow lay slumped, crimson blooming across his shirt. Anyhow, there was this contessa Don Aronow met while he was racing in the Mediterranean off northern Italy. He built this entire street. Airlifted to a nearby hospital, Don Aronow was dead within the hour. The people who killed him were found out almost a decade after the fact. He was about outdoing the other guy no matter what you were doing. [Then vice president] Bush said, We aint gonna buy boats from Ben Kramer. Bob Saccenti Don used to come and see me when I was hurt one of those You need anything, let me know, things. Kramer was already serving a life term in jail without the possibility of parole due to his convictions in 1988 and 1989 for narcotics trafficking and possession of a firearm, as well as his 1990 conviction for an unsuccessful helicopter escape attempt from a federal prison outside of Miami. By November 1981, a Time magazine cover feature was declaring that an epidemic of violent crime, a plague of illicit drugs and a tidal wave of refugees have slammed into South Florida with the destructive power of a hurricane. He sold Magnum to American Photocopy for a ton. He hung out with kings, mobsters, and The Beatles, and considered future president George H.W. Aronow said Let me see. Then he took the watch by the clasp, banged it on the table, and threw it in a glass of beer. Besides the states weak case, there were other, more fundamental doubts over whether Kramer had arranged to have Aronow shot. Meet His Family, Ben Aronoff Net Worth Figures In The Movie. I never thought anybody would actually do that, but by God, they did., Michael Peters [George] Bushs reaction was that he wanted [Miami] Dade Homicide on it like it was the most important case on their books. They had me in a cage for three years and nine months, with no daylight, no contact with human beings, Kramer said. If true, it was a curious place to hide out from them. That became the original Formula Marine.. Then one time, Don left, and said Alright kid, Ill see ya, and he walked out the door. Saccenti: He was a great guy and a great businessman. The book about Don Aranows life by Arthur J. Harris was turned into the movie Speed Kills. The sun was lowering in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of warmth and light. He was a hero and a genius, a ballbuster and a bully. And I was like, do I really want to move down there? Michael Aronow is one of Dons five sons from three wives. We were having lunch one day and Don asked if it was a good watch. It had to do with his father's taxicab company. His first boat was made of wood and broke apart. Accounts of the dealings vary, but perhaps $2 million had been paid under the table in cash by Kramer when he bought the firm, using drug money. (Ironically, in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Saccentis life was saved by his race partner, none other than Ben Kramer. Kramer got a 19-year sentence for manslaughter to run concurrently with a life term for marijuana smuggling. They had three children: [1] Michael who was a star athlete at the University of Florida until he was severely injured in a car accident in 1970 and used a wheelchair after that. Five days after his murder, The Washington Post reported that a Customs official described Aronow as co-operative when Aronow had been approached for information about one of his clients. Aronow: By 66 my dad had sold Donzi to Teleflex. Six foot three, real good looking, lots of swagger. And I seen it, the blood. And sure enough, I moved there on a Monday and he was murdered that Tuesday. It was late and night during the depths of America's great Depression. Aronow: After the 62 race my father started to work with Jim Wynne and Walt Walters. 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